Aggravation - Mysurvey

[peach6]

I just received a survey in my e-mail from My Survey and as soon as I clicked on it said I don't qualify for this survey that is fine buy why send it to me and then I clicked on two different ones on SH and they both said I already did them well do your job and get them off my Dashboard.

[QWERTY]

Seen it a thousand times if I've seen it once. Just one of those things you get use to.

[ssssurvey]

Because they don't care. If you get mad and leave, there are plenty of people behind you. It is really messed up. It's funny how they hold US accountable though but they are never held accountable

[avemaria]

it's worse with OO.. i'm screening out lately for entering my sex and age.. how am I getting matched to it?

[ResearchGuy]

Hi all - I've been lurking on these forums for quite some time now, and I thought it might be helpful if I created an account to try and explain some of the frustrations being voiced here. I work in the industry, so while I can't speak to a specific online panel's motivations or exact method of operation (nor am I here as a representative of any panels/companies I may be associated with), I can give some alternative perspective to help understand why things might be happening.

What typically happens is that any given survey needs a specific number of completed interviews. Furthermore, many surveys have quotas, say 50% male and 50% female. Not everyone who is invited to participate in a survey will actually participate, so a panel needs to invite more people than are needed.

What very likely happened is that, while they did know you were a (for example) 32 year old female, they don't know if you're actually going to respond - or *when* you're going to respond. If they only need 50 females who are 30-35 and that quota has already been filled by the time you take the survey, you will be terminated when you go through the survey. You might notice this moreso if you're on a panel and haven't participated in a while. You log in and (hopefully) have a bunch of surveys available to you. If you start at the bottom of the list (or whichever invitations are oldest) then you may find that you get disqualified from those more frequently than on invites you've received recently.

This is further complicated by the fact that some online research companies partner with the panel you're a member of, so the panel does not have a direct 'hook' into the survey system to know when a particular group has been filled - that process is still very much a manual process - literally someone on the survey platform end sending an email to someone working on the panel end that the survey can be closed down - and only then does the invite link get removed from your panel homepage.

I hope this helps and hopefully I can contribute some perspective on posts in the future.

[ssssurvey]

And I believe a lot of panels are "clean-up" sites. After one panel gets as many responses as they can, and are lacking certain demographics, the market research company said it to another panel looking only for specific demographics.

[SeriousSurveyer]

Ssssurvey, which sites do you think those are?

[ResearchGuy]

And I believe a lot of panels are "clean-up" sites. After one panel gets as many responses as they can, and are lacking certain demographics, the market research company said it to another panel looking only for specific demographics.

In some cases this is true. A good project team will know how much they are going to need and how much they have on their own panel so will proactively involve a third party to participate right from the get-go. (This would not affect you as a panelist because you're getting invited at the same time as everyone else). However, a poorly-managed project, or perhaps one whose requirements were just underestimated, may bring in a panel close to the end of the project's lifetime to 'clean up' some of those groups that weren't filled. However, even in that situation, if you are on the 'clean up' panel, you shouldn't get an invite if you wouldn't qualify. But then again, if they only need 2 more females 30-35 years old, you may be 1 of 100 females 30-35 years of age that get invited.

[peach6]

ReachsearcgGuy,Thank you for responding on the forum ,although I still feel like it is a waste of ourt time when you have to answer some questions before you get DQ and this is a survey that you didn't qualify for and should't have received.Why do we even do profiles then?

[footfree]

ReachsearcgGuy- I would like to make a suggestion.Could you please ask whoever makes up the surveys to please get to the point.What I mean is ask like ie..if we use the product and if we put in no then that should be it or even ask us do we plan to use said product. Most times it takes 5 minutes to get to the point of the survey before we are kicked off.To me if they did it this way then we can all better manage our time on things that matter.I like Ipsos because most of their surveys start off with my info already tagged and all I have to do is hit the forward button until I get to the real questions.This helps ,hell anything would help, I mean spending 1 or 2 hours a week being disqualified and answering questions that have nothing to do with the survey is real frustrating.

[ssssurvey]

Exactly. Basically, there IS a chance that you won't qualify because of demographics, but if they know 100% that they won't survey you because you don't buy a certain product, then they should ask that FIRST. C and R does that. They ask right upfront about product use and THEN ask demographics. That's why I like their surveys.

[somelady]

Researchguy, Why have these sites started paying so little for surveys, especially long ones? I figure the companies pay them and give them the money to pay us and they're keeping most of it for themselves.

[footfree]

Researchguy, Why have these sites started paying so little for surveys, especially long ones? I figure the companies pay them and give them the money to pay us and they're keeping most of it for themselves.

Because there's a sucker born every minute.As long as people do the surveys for what little pay they are willing to offer then why should they pay more?Plus with the economy going down the tubes people aren't willing to pay or part with money they have.For instance -lets says company x needs a survey done they hire survey company b they have different levels of surveys they offer which pay a certain amount of money.It's ultimately up to company x what amount of money they are willing to pay to have this research done and how much company b are willing to pass on to us.Plus with banks paying out little to none in interest they have to make up for it by offering us the surveys takers less money so they can have a larger net profit.I mean I can go on with all types of reason as to why this is happening.But to me the real reason is survey companies are becoming more cost effective then before and that most people are willing to do these surveys for so little pay.If we stop working for pennies then they would have to pay more or they wont have any of us working for them which would inevitable drive them out of business.